The surging San Francisco Giants have made the NL West a little more intriguing.

Brandon Belt and Joe Panik drove in two runs each Youth Tyler Pitlick Jersey , Hunter Pence had a pinch-hit, two-run double, and the Giants completed a three-game sweep with a 9-6 victory over the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks. It was San Francisco’s seventh win in eight games and their first sweep of the Diamondbacks since September of 2016. San Francisco moved into a second-place tie at 2 1/2 games behind Arizona for the first time since June 10.

A four-run fifth inning highlighted by Pence’s double off reliever Silvino Bracho gave the Giants an 8-3 lead. Cory Gearrin (1-1) got one out in the fourth inning to earn the win in relief of starter Derek Holland.

Afterward, manager Bruce Bochy praised the veteran Pence – who is primarily a bench player at present – for accepting his role.

”He is our spiritual leader. I know his role has changed and he has handled it so well. This is a little bit of a change for him and it is not easy,” Bochy said. ”He has a great attitude and just wants to help the club win.”

The Giants tagged starter Zack Godley (9-6) for seven runs on nine hits in four-plus innings, ending his four-game winning streak. But Holland didn’t make it out of the fourth, chased after loading the bases with an intentional walk with San Francisco leading 4-3.

The Diamondbacks couldn’t take advantage, as Belt raced well beyond the first base bag into shallow right field to throw out Christian Walker at first and end the inning.

”We feel like we are in a good rhythm,” Pence said. ”It’s part of baseball and we feel like we are working on all cylinders and that is definitely momentum.”

Holland allowed three runs on seven hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Godley’s five walks were the second most he’s issued in a start this season.

”I couldn’t locate certain pitches and they took advantage of that,” Godley said. ”They’re swinging the bat really well right now, one through nine.”

Arizona rallied with two runs in the seventh on Paul Goldschmidt’s 18th home run of the season, and Jarrod Dyson became the eighth player in team history to record at least two hits Tyler Seguin Jersey , two RBIs and two stolen bases in a game.

The Diamondbacks brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth with two outs, but Will Smith struck out Jake Lamb for Smith’s second save.

Walker, normally a first baseman, started Sunday in left field for the first time in his 44-game major league career.

FREQUENT FLIER

To help provide coverage for the bullpen amid a long stretch without a day off, Arizona called up Bracho from Triple-A Reno before Sunday’s game. Pitcher Jimmy Sherfy was sent back to Reno. Bracho has been recalled five times this season.

Giants: 3B Pablo Sandoval was hit by a pitch in the right elbow in the third inning and left the game before the bottom of the inning. X-rays were negative and the injury was announced as a deep bruise, with Sandoval’s status day to day. … 3B Evan Longoria is about a week away from taking some swings as he works his way back from a broken left hand, Bochy said. … RHP Jeff Samardzija’s final rehab start for Triple- A Sacramento is set for Monday and he is expected to pitch five or six innings with around 90 pitches.

Diamondbacks: INF Ketel Marte was held out after suffering a right leg cramp in Saturday’s game. Manager Torey Lovullo said he felt the team ”dodged a bullet” as far a more serious injury.

UP NEXT

Giants: LHP Madison Bumgarner (1-2) is set for his sixth start of the season in the series opener against the Colorado Rockies on Monday in Denver.

Diamondbacks: LHP Robbie Ray (3-0) is set to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the series opener at Chase Field on Monday.

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Showing yet again that good slalom beats good downhill in Alpine combined, Victor Muffat-Jeandet rose from 27th place to win a World Cup on Friday.

The Frenchman got his first career win using the fastest run in slalom to finish 0.96 seconds ahead of Pavel Trikhichev of Russia.

Trikhichev Anthony Mantha Jersey , who also got a career-best result, had been 29th after the morning downhill, earning use of the best snow surface in slalom when the top 30 start in reverse order.

”Combined is always a crazy day,” Muffat-Jeandet said. ”You have to fight to stay in the top 30 in downhill.”

Peter Fill of Italy was the best of the downhill specialists, placing third 1.15 behind Muffat-Jeandet after being fourth fastest in the morning. Fill edged Kjetil Jansrud of Norway off the podium by 0.01.

Trikhichev’s previous World Cup best was 16th last Saturday in a giant slalom at nearby Adelboden.

”Surprised, I was really shocked,” the Russian said of his runner-up performance which earned 20,000 Swiss francs ($20,600) in prize money. ”I (thought I) could be top 10 but podium is just, `Wow.”’

First-run leader Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria started his slalom run with 2.55 in hand over Muffat-Jeandet but quickly skied out.

World champion Luca Aerni of Switzerland also failed to finish the slalom when holding a 0.40-second lead over Muffat-Jeandet from downhill.

When Aerni won the gold medal on home snow at St. Moritz last February, he was 30th in downhill and got a first run on a clean slalom surface. The 2015 world title was also won by the 30th fastest downhill racer, Austrian star Marcel Hirscher.

The field on Friday was weakened by the winner of the previous combined this season Darren Helm Jersey , Alexis Pinturault of France, opting not to start to focus on training for a slalom on Sunday.

Pinturault’s absence allowed Jansrud to close the gap on his third place in the overall World Cup points standings led by six-time defending champion Hirscher who will next race Sunday.

Though men’s and women’s combined are on the Olympic program at the Pyeongchang Games next month, the event’s long-term future is in question.

A mixed gender team event in parallel slalom debuts at the Olympics and the more dynamic, television-friendly racing format is being promoted by the International Ski Federation.

Muffat-Jeandet suggested there would be no World Cup combined event next year at Wengen, where he got a first career podium finish in 2015.

”It’s a little bit of a shame because maybe I will not be coming back in downhill because there will not be a combined,” he said.

The highlight of the three-race meeting is the storied Lauberhorn downhill on Saturday over 4.3 kilometers, the longest course on the World Cup circuit.

On a shorter 2.9-kilometer course on Friday, the fastest speed of 146.97 kph (92 mph) was clocked by Dominik Paris of Italy. He placed fifth overall, 0.03 behind teammate Fill.

Clear blue skies are forecast on Saturday for Switzerland’s favorite Alpine race which was cancelled last year because of poor weather.